She was someone who already knew my friends – she wasn’t this on-off person that I met somewhere.” I mean, how do you ever know anybody? I don’t ask someone where they’re from and think they’re making up their entire identity. “There was a sense that she was a little bit aloof and disconnected, but only in a way that fitted with who she claimed she was: a trust fund kid who could be a little messy and who couldn’t care less about being organised about her finances,” she says. Williams - who has now released a book telling her story - doesn’t think anyone in her friendship group questioned Sorokin’s background. "Her Instagram served as an instant background check – which isn’t reliable, obviously"
The story is timely because people are so interested in social media now, and its positive and negative impact on society, and the way in which it encourages people to want to build themselves as an internet celebrity.” “She took on traditionally male dominated power structures when it came to financial scamming. “Anna is a fascinating character for better for worse, especially as a young woman,” Williams tells us. Eventually, she goes to the police and her friend’s story unravels. Sorokin assures her friend that she will pay her back, but the debt is never repaid. Following an extravagant trip together to Marrakesh in May 2017, Williams was left with an astounding $62,000 bill which she divides across two credit cards. After Williams was wooed by Sorokin for months though expensive dinners, nights out and designer shopping trips, their friendship came to a dramatic head. She also scammed her best friend, Rachel Deloache Williams, a former Vanity Fair picture researcher. Sorokin’s victims weren’t only high-end hotels and banks. HBO and Netflix both bought the rights, and Sorokin, who is still curating her image, wanted Margot Robbie to play her (as we now know, that role went to Emmy-winning Ozark actress Julia Garner).
It had all the trappings of a great story – greed, glamour, deceit and money. The case immediately attracted international media attention. All this created a credible-looking public image that convinced people that she was who she claimed to be. Her goal was to set up a new version of Soho House, securing herself a place in the arts scene by going to the right restaurants and clubs and Instagramming herself at the most notable new openings.
She defrauded hotels, restaurants, a private jet operator and banks out of more than $200,000 while living an implausibly lavish lifestyle in New York, telling friends and prospective scam victims that she was a wealthy German heiress. In May 2019, Delvey, real name Sorokin, was sentenced to between four and 12 years in prison for grand larceny. On the other hand, she is the embodiment of the millennial stereotype, entitled and obsessed with the seemingly perfect lifestyles seen on Instagram. On one hand, she has been applauded as an antihero – a modern, female version of Robin Hood who ripped off the rich and faceless capitalist organisations. The story of Anna Delvey, the enigmatic con artist who deceived New York’s elite, has divided opinion.
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